John Tunison | The Grand Rapids PressTwo of five peacocks roaming a northeast side neighborhood

GRAND RAPIDS -- Several years ago, a group of wild peacocks and turkeys began calling a northeast side neighborhood their home -- a charming and unusual addition as most neighbors saw it.

No one knows for sure exactly where the colorful peacocks came from.

But now one neighbor wants the birds gone, calling them nuisances that have destroyed destroyed property and even chased a person.

William and Margaret Tingley of Kent Hills Road NE, next to the Kent Country Club, last week filed a lawsuit that alleges the peacocks are eating their plants and flowers, driving away native wildlife, leaving excrement on their property, causing noise issues and otherwise "creating dangerous, offensive or hazardous conditions."

The Tingleys claim that Fred Schoonbeck and workers with a nearby organization called the Wildlife Rehab Center are wrongly feeding the free-roaming peacocks and giving them winter shelter, causing them to stick around.

But Schoonbeck says the claims are simply poppycock.

"This whole thing is silly," he said, calling the lawsuit frivolous and describing how he knows of no other neighbor with concerns about the peacocks.

In fact, Schoonbeck said he collected 80 signatures from neighbors who want the birds -- five in all -- to stay.

He said most believe they add character to the area. As he talked about the lawsuit Tuesday on his back patio, a peacock he aptly named "Freddie" roamed nearby without regard to humans and even strolled onto the patio and into large planters.

"Half the people around here will claim the peacocks belong to them and they feed them," he said.

In the lawsuit, the Tingleys say Schoonbeck owns the peacocks and, along with the Wildlife Rehab Center, trying to breed them.

John Tunison | The Grand Rapids Press"Freddie" the peacock rests on Fred Schoonbeck's back patio

Peg Markle, executive director of the rehab center, an animal rescue group, said the claims are laughable because the peacock numbers have not increased over the years. The birds have had eggs, but only one baby peacock has survived and that was about four years ago.

The baby peacock was adopted out of the neighborhood.

"Our top limit is probably going to be five," she said.

Neighbors say the peacocks generally eat bugs when not fed, not flowers and plants, and suggest that rabbits and woodchucks are eating the Tingley's flowers.

While the Tingleys claim the peacocks could not survive a Michigan winter without some type of shelter, Schoonbeck said they simply roost in trees with the turkeys. He acknowledges sometimes feeding the birds, but said many neighbors do.

The peacocks can be noisy during the spring mating season, but otherwise are quiet, he said, and have shown no aggression to anyone. Neighbors said about eight turkeys used to roam the neighborhood, but that has dwindled to five.

The Tingleys called Grand Rapids housing officials and the Kent County animal control officers to see if anything could be done about the peacocks. County animal control officers did place a live-trap in the area, but otherwise have taken no action.

In the lawsuit, the Tingleys are asking a judge to force the defendants to remove the peacocks and also want money damages.